Artist: Eric Clapton
Album: History of Eric Clapton (ATCO SD 2-803 0698)
Year: 1972
Matrix No: Side One: ST-G-722479-AAA-1-11 AT/QP
Side Two: ST-C-722481-BBB-1-11 AT/QP
Side Three: ST-G-722482-AAA-1-111 AT/QP
Side Four: ST-G-722480-AAA-1-11
History of Eric Clapton is a compilation double LP, released in 1972 by Polydor Records in the United Kingdom, and Atco Records
in the United States. It features Eric Clapton performing in various bands between 1964 and 1970, including The Yardbirds,
Cream, Blind Faith and Derek and the Dominos. The album is notable for helping both Clapton's career when he was battling a
severe heroin addiction and making Clapton's magnum opus, "Layla", famous.
This compilation was notable for being the first in rock music to collect music of a single rock musician that spans time, bands,
music styles and record labels.
The album cover picture was taken at George Harrison's Concert for Bangladesh while Clapton was playing "While My Guitar Gently
Weeps" on a Gibson Byrdland hollow-body guitar.
The two "Tell the Truth" tracks here are different from and were recorded before "Tell The Truth" on Layla and Other Assorted
Love Songs (1970). "Tell the Truth" here is a fast up-beat version of the song and was originally released as a single in
July 1970. "Tell the Truth – Jam" is a long and slow instrumental jam from the Layla sessions which had never been released
before. The version that appears on Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs is a combination of these two takes: the frantic pace of
the single is slowed down to the laid-back speed of the instrumental.
The US release of this compilation replaced "Tales of Brave Ulysses" with "Tribute to Elmore", a Clapton and Jimmy Page homage
to American blues musician Elmore James. "Tribute to Elmore" was one of several jams performed by Clapton, Page and Jeff Beck,
which were recorded by Page and released later without consulting Clapton or Beck.
Track listing:
Side One:
No. Title Performer Length
1. "I Ain't Got You" (Carter) The Yardbirds (September 1964) 2:46
2. "Hideaway" (King/Thompson) John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers (April 1966) 3:13
3. "Tribute to Elmore" (Clapton/Page) Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page (June 1965) 3:00
4. "I Want to Know" (McLeod) Eric Clapton and the Powerhouse (March 1966) 2:14
5. "Sunshine of Your Love" (Bruce/Brown/Clapton) Cream (May 1967) 4:11
6. "Crossroads" (Robert Johnson) Cream (March 1968) 4:14
Side 2:
1. "Spoonful" (Dixon) Cream (March 1968) 16:43
2. "Badge" (Clapton/Harrison) Cream (October 1968) 2:45
Side 3:
1. "Sea of Joy" (Winwood) Blind Faith (June 1969) 3:19
2. "Only You Know and I Know" (Mason) Delaney & Bonnie (December 1969) 4:18
3. "I Don't Want to Discuss It" (Beatty/Cooper/Shelby)Delaney & Bonnie (December 1969) 5:40
4. "Teasin'" (Ousley) King Curtis (January 1970) 2:15
5. "Blues Power" (Clapton/Russell) Eric Clapton (January 1970) 3:11
Side 4:
1. "Tell the Truth" (Clapton/Whitlock) Derek and the Dominos (June 1970) 3:19
2. "Tell the Truth – Jam" (Clapton/Whitlock) Derek and the Dominos (August–September 1970) 9:27
3. "Layla" (Clapton/Gordon) Derek and the Dominos (August/October 1970) 7:06
UK tracks:
On the UK LP, Side A, track 3, "Tribute to Elmore" is replaced with:
3. "Tales of Brave Ulysses" (Clapton/Sharp) Cream (May 1967) 2:46
Album Review:
Review by William Ruhlmann
This two-LP compilation was a crucial factor in the development of Eric Clapton's solo status at a time when the artist himself was
incapacitated by drug problems -- a fact that was not widely known to the public at that time. And it was not only a revelation in
terms of the guitarist's career, covering the years 1964 to 1970 by weaving together tracks from Clapton's various bands -- the
Yardbirds, John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, Cream, Blind Faith, Delaney & Bonnie & Friends, and Derek & the Dominos -- but it was also
the first compilation of its kind in rock music. Never before had a collection aimed at a rock audience focused on a single musician
working across time in a wide variety of group contexts and music styles and idioms, and drawn from a multitude of labels. That
sort of profile was well known in jazz circles, but wholly new as a commercial venture in rock -- and, in a somewhat ironic twist,
History of Eric Clapton was sufficiently successful to pave the way for the release eight months later of Duane Allman: An Anthology,
devoted to the work of Clapton's deceased Derek & the Dominos stablemate (including the repetition of "Layla" which, by then, was
a huge hit). Its success was a turning point for Clapton, whose already considerable international fame achieved critical mass in
the wake of this release (especially in the United States), as well as for rock music, which suddenly seemed to be taken a lot more
seriously by casual listeners, and record labels and producers. As for the revelations contained herein, they seemed boundless at
the time -- even the one Yardbirds track that was featured, "I Ain't Got You," easily the most primitive and straightforward track
on the album, was something new to most listeners, especially in America, as the latter song had only previously been available on
two very poorly selling American compilations and a budget U.K. collection. And from what was then the other end of his career,
the "Tell the Truth" jam was a serious vault raid of a sort previously unknown in rock music, and helped to make this a priority
acquisition, even for those listeners who had followed Clapton's career religiously (as in "Clapton is God," a piece of graffiti
common in London in the mid-'60s). The stuff in between those two poles was also new to most casual listeners, and diverse enough,
between the stylized blues of John Mayall's band and the psychedelic-tinged work of the Cream, so that it only stimulated interest
in the guitarist's entire catalog. And what's even more astonishing to consider, in retrospect, is that the 11 songs represented
here only went two years deep into Clapton's actual solo career -- there was still a lot more to come, although ending, as this
set did, with "Layla" by Derek & the Dominos was a fortuitous choice; the original Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs album had
passed largely unnoticed when issued in 1970, but this compilation gave that earlier album's title song a new lease on life,
especially on AM radio, turning it into a Top 10 hit which, in turn, revived interest in the original album and sent it soaring up
the charts well over a year after its original release. Curiously, the U.S. and U.K. versions of History differed slightly --
side one, track three of the U.K. version was "Tales of Brave Ulysses," a killer Clapton original recorded by the Cream in 1967;
whereas on the U.S. version, that track was replaced by "Tribute to Elmore," a mid-'60s Elmore James homage by Clapton and Jimmy
Page, part of a group of jams featuring Clapton, Page, and Jeff Beck, recorded by Page and later released without the knowledge or
approval of the other guitarists. Today, with its essential tracks, rarities, and previously unreleased studio jam on "Tell the Truth,"
plus liner notes, History looks like the prototype for the box set retrospectives of the '80s and '90s (which were, in turn,
spearheaded by the Clapton Crossroads four-disc set and its mega-platinum success, not quite two decades after this set). In 1972,
the latter defined Clapton and helped save his career. And it still doesn't make a bad summation of his best work.
Rip Info:
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